Brand Monitoring

What is Brand Monitoring?

In cybersecurity, brand monitoring means tracking your company’s name and reputation online. It aims to prevent misuse and protect your brand.

This includes monitoring for fake websites, social media profiles, or email scams that pretend to be from your company.

The goal is simple: detect and respond to threats before they harm your brand or cause financial loss.

Why is Brand Monitoring Important?

Your brand is one of your most valuable assets.

But it’s also one of the most vulnerable.

Cybercriminals exploit brands to scam customers, spread misinformation, or steal sensitive information.

It’s vital to monitor your brand online. It helps protect your assets as well as your reputation.

How Does Brand Monitoring Work?

Here’s a simplified breakdown of how brand monitoring solutions typically work:

• Define Monitoring Scope: Monitor your brand name, domain names, IP addresses, and proprietary data. Next select where to monitor. Social media, blogs, forums, news sites, dark web, and Certificate Transparency logs are popular sources.
• Set Up Monitoring Tools: Use automated tools to continuously scan the internet for mentions of your brand. Configure alerts for specific keywords or variations of your brand name. This helps catch typosquatting and homoglyph attacks early.
• Data Collection: Track mentions across different platforms in real-time. Gather all this data in one central place for easy analysis and reporting.
• Analyze Data: Match keywords to find relevant brand mentions. Check the tone of those mentioned. Negative mentions could signal a threat. Pay attention to the context. This allows you to differentiate between a harmless mention and a potential threat.
• Identify Threats: Detect phishing attacks, scams, and fraud using your brand name or similar domain names. Monitor for newly registered domains that are similar to your brand’s domain name. These are called typosquatting attacks and could be used for malicious purposes. In addition, check the dark web for leaked credentials and sensitive data related to your brand.
• Respond to Threats: Investigate the threat, take down malicious content, and notify affected users. If necessary, pursue legal steps against those exploiting your brand. Keep your customers and partners informed about your efforts to address the threat.

Examples of Brand Attacks

Brand monitoring can help catch attacks early. Here are a few real-world examples:

1. Twitter: In 2020, hackers exploited Twitter as part of an impersonation attack. They compromised the accounts of several well known people (and companies), including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Apple. The attackers used social media posts to promote a cryptocurrency scam. The attackers asked followers to send Bitcoin with the promise of doubling their money. This attack not only caused real financial losses but also damaged the trust people had in Twitter/X.
2. Google: In 2017, a Google Docs worm infected over a million users by impersonating Google Docs. It sent an email to victims claiming to be a relative or friend who wanted to share a document. Clicking on the “Open in Docs” button prompted the user to log into Google using the familiar OAuth request asking for permissions. When the victim clicked “Allow”, full permission was granted over their entire email and contacts list. The worm then emailed everyone in their contacts list to continue propagating.
3. Activision: In 2022, Activision suffered a data breach after malicious users gained access to their internal systems. The attacker gained access by tricking an employee with an SMS phishing text. A company spokesperson said that no employee details, player data, or game data were breached in the attack. However, reports from Insider-Gaming and vx-underground showed that the attackers gained access to full names, email addresses, phone numbers, salary information, work locations, and other employee details.

How To Prevent Attacks On Your Brand

Proactive brand monitoring can stop threats before they cause real damage. Here’s how prevent attacks:

1. Monitor Online Mentions: Go beyond Google Alerts. Use brand monitoring tools to track mentions of your brand on social media, forums, and blogs.
2. Track Domain Registrations: Tools like CertStream help monitor for new domain registrations. Filter the output to identify typosquatting domains similar your brand’s domain name.
3. Monitor the Dark Web: Use dark web monitoring solutions to locate leaked company data, employee credentials, session tokens, planned attacks, and any mentions of your brand.
4. Run Phishing Simulations: Train your employees by running phishing simulations. This will help them spot and avoid phishing attacks
5. Add Legal Protection: Trademark your brand and logos to legally protect against misuse.
6. Leverage External Partners: Work with ISPs and domain registrars to take down malicious domains.